I learnt a timely lesson today. Wanting to push the envelope using technology puts us at risk of failure. Failure is hard - especially for teachers. We have to fail in front of our students and that throws up issues of our own self confidence and self esteem. BUT we have to model this positive failure - it's 'failing forward' - and not lose our minds when it doesn't work!
Yes it's frustrating.
Yes it makes us look less than 'smooth' when trying something - but would we rather be trying and not always getting it right than never trying? When we get it right it's really worth it.
Today I was struggling with using Googledocs with my year 9 BYOD class. Bless them they are so good with the technical glitches we have. Their patience when I change what we are doing YET AGAIN to accommodate a fail is amazing. I had been thinking of using Doctopus to enable everyone to be working online and me to be seeing it. But just couldn't get my head around it the night before so went with just Googledocs.
Using tech so much means that of course we have established workarounds in class. IF you cant - for some bizarre reason - get online in class when everyone else is - and you have tried restarting, forget this network, reboot, close, open, have the teacher stand near your desk (which for some bizarre reason sometimes even works!) and all the other tricks you know - then you use a word OR pages document and copy and paste it to Googledocs or Classroom sometime later in the day when the planets are aligned for you.
Constantly having to juggle these things is new to us as teachers. It's just ONE MORE THING that can go belly up in a lesson - and God knows there are enough other things that can go wrong!
But these 'technical glitches' have always happened in teaching. It used to be that the marker pens all ran out or you couldn't find the roll of newsprint you put somewhere or an assembly is suddenly scheduled for that lesson - oh hang on those still happen! Its just a variation on the old theme of Murphy's Law.
Then there are the days when I think I will use a spreadsheet - in Google Classroom - so I set up a Google Sheet and share it with the class. Don't want them all to have a copy - want them all working on the same page - so to speak - so they can literally see each other's answers and learn from that.
So - we begin - then Hannah's hand goes up - I cant write on mine using my iPad - sometimes they can, sometimes they can't - I can't find a logical reason why or why not.
Are you using the App or the website - does it make a difference? Sometimes, sometimes not.
So then Georgia's hand goes up... She's using a temporary tablet today and it doesnt have 'sheets' on it. Then Libby's hand waves at me - can she work from her phone as her computer seems to be updating at the moment and wont let her in.
About now I am wishing I was in a nice safe, clean, cool, computer lab. But that's not the reality! Hannah and Georgia and Libby are the reality and they need a solution. So I buddy them up with someone and they share their answer. It's not really what I wanted - it's a compromise. But it keeps everyone working. If the problems were too widespread I'd end up getting them to work in their groups and putting up one group answer - then we can all share the finished document. There's always a way - it's just that sometimes finding that 'way' is more challenging than you would think!
I am trying to go as paperless as possible in my year 9 this year.
This is not simple. The paper we do use tends to be big sheets for brainstorming and collaboration and IF I HAD MY OWN ROOM - they would go on the wall - but I don't, so they don't. So we take photos of them and drop them into our OneNotes.
Hmmm must check those OneNotes soon to make sure things really are being stored there as I asked. No we are not syncing them as we are not a 365 school... we are a GAFE school. So why am I not using Googledocs to file things? Because it's ugly mostly.
OneNote gives the students the look and feel of a folder and this familiarity is good for them - and for me. Googledocs and GoogleDrive store things in a bland format.
Come on Google pimp it up a bit! These are teenagers!
So here's to all of us pushing the envelope, hanging on by our fingernails at times. Power to us all and may your batteries remain charged.
Yes it's frustrating.
Yes it makes us look less than 'smooth' when trying something - but would we rather be trying and not always getting it right than never trying? When we get it right it's really worth it.
Today I was struggling with using Googledocs with my year 9 BYOD class. Bless them they are so good with the technical glitches we have. Their patience when I change what we are doing YET AGAIN to accommodate a fail is amazing. I had been thinking of using Doctopus to enable everyone to be working online and me to be seeing it. But just couldn't get my head around it the night before so went with just Googledocs.
Using tech so much means that of course we have established workarounds in class. IF you cant - for some bizarre reason - get online in class when everyone else is - and you have tried restarting, forget this network, reboot, close, open, have the teacher stand near your desk (which for some bizarre reason sometimes even works!) and all the other tricks you know - then you use a word OR pages document and copy and paste it to Googledocs or Classroom sometime later in the day when the planets are aligned for you.
Constantly having to juggle these things is new to us as teachers. It's just ONE MORE THING that can go belly up in a lesson - and God knows there are enough other things that can go wrong!
But these 'technical glitches' have always happened in teaching. It used to be that the marker pens all ran out or you couldn't find the roll of newsprint you put somewhere or an assembly is suddenly scheduled for that lesson - oh hang on those still happen! Its just a variation on the old theme of Murphy's Law.
Then there are the days when I think I will use a spreadsheet - in Google Classroom - so I set up a Google Sheet and share it with the class. Don't want them all to have a copy - want them all working on the same page - so to speak - so they can literally see each other's answers and learn from that.
So - we begin - then Hannah's hand goes up - I cant write on mine using my iPad - sometimes they can, sometimes they can't - I can't find a logical reason why or why not.
Are you using the App or the website - does it make a difference? Sometimes, sometimes not.
So then Georgia's hand goes up... She's using a temporary tablet today and it doesnt have 'sheets' on it. Then Libby's hand waves at me - can she work from her phone as her computer seems to be updating at the moment and wont let her in.
About now I am wishing I was in a nice safe, clean, cool, computer lab. But that's not the reality! Hannah and Georgia and Libby are the reality and they need a solution. So I buddy them up with someone and they share their answer. It's not really what I wanted - it's a compromise. But it keeps everyone working. If the problems were too widespread I'd end up getting them to work in their groups and putting up one group answer - then we can all share the finished document. There's always a way - it's just that sometimes finding that 'way' is more challenging than you would think!
I am trying to go as paperless as possible in my year 9 this year.
This is not simple. The paper we do use tends to be big sheets for brainstorming and collaboration and IF I HAD MY OWN ROOM - they would go on the wall - but I don't, so they don't. So we take photos of them and drop them into our OneNotes.
Hmmm must check those OneNotes soon to make sure things really are being stored there as I asked. No we are not syncing them as we are not a 365 school... we are a GAFE school. So why am I not using Googledocs to file things? Because it's ugly mostly.
OneNote gives the students the look and feel of a folder and this familiarity is good for them - and for me. Googledocs and GoogleDrive store things in a bland format.
Come on Google pimp it up a bit! These are teenagers!
So here's to all of us pushing the envelope, hanging on by our fingernails at times. Power to us all and may your batteries remain charged.